


Tiny Promises

by kqbaby



Series: Kellin Fics [3]
Category: Bandom, Sleeping With Sirens
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Aftermath of Violence, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst and Drama, Angst and Feels, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blow Jobs, Boys Being Boys, Comfort, Comfort/Angst, Confessions, Conversations, Crying, Cute, Drama, Drama & Romance, Embarrassment, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Smut, F/M, Feelings, Feels, Fights, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Fucked Up, Guilt, Happy Ending, Honesty, Hostage Situations, Humiliation, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Jealousy, Kissing, Love, Lust, Messy, Minor Violence, Musicians, Non-Graphic Violence, Oral Sex, Original Character(s), POV Third Person, Passion, Past Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Relationship(s), Past Sexual Assault, Physical Abuse, Possession, Possessive Behavior, Power Dynamics, Promises, Public Humiliation, Reflection, Regret, Rejection, Resolved Sexual Tension, Romance, Sassy, Showing Off, Single POV, Surprise Kissing, Surprises, Sweet, Sweet/Hot, Threats of Violence, Tour Bus, Touring, Trauma, Triggers, Truth, Unexpected Visitors, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Victim Blaming, Violence, Warped Tour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24729148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kqbaby/pseuds/kqbaby
Summary: Gemma's problematic ex disrupts a Sleeping With Sirens set. Chaos, comfort, and smut ensue!CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, abuse, sexual assault/rape, and alcoholism. Mostly alluded to, but there are some moderately graphic descriptions that could trigger some including: a distressing (but relatively minor) physical assault, injuries resulting from that and other violence (which is alluded to), alcoholic rage, verbal abuse, victim (self-)blaming. Multiple types of abuse, including sexual assault/rape, are discussed/alluded to in the context of a past relationship, but they aren't depicted in detail.
Relationships: Kellin Quinn/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Kellin Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1786225
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Tiny Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Tried doing one in the third person! Ft. the inimitable Justin Hills. Last few paragraphs are smut, the rest is just a lot of angst and fluff and drama. Wanted to take a shot at writing some heavier stuff without being cheesy, not sure if I succeeded. Feel free to let me know in the comments!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: The other OC in this is inspired by a few people, only one of which is (in)famous. It's probably pretty obvious who, but I just wanted to clarify that this character is not meant to be a portrayal of that person in any way. I only incorporated these details so that the character I created made more sense in this context, and I chose that person because there are a lot of parallels/connections to the main person that inspired the character. I'm saying this all because I'm really uncomfortable with someone assigning this fictional person's behavior with an actual person, so please don't do it. The resemblance is deliberately superficial, and the actual character is pure fiction.
> 
> [I love camo Kellin, what about you guys? I don't know if the quote in the second GIF is real or not, but it was relevant. If you know which video it's from, could you link it for me in the comments? The first one is from their 2012 set at Starline, but they're different shirts so not the same set.]

“Shit! I’m so sorry,” Gemma started. In her characteristically clumsy manner, she’d spilt her beer all over the person she’d just run right into on her way back to the set. She’d almost made it, too, she was within eyeshot of the band. “Let me–” she started, cutting herself off when she finally looked up to take in the face of the man, a full foot taller than she was. “Jon?”

He was obviously, and predictably, drunk. In fact, he looked like he’d been on a bender for days already. When he was drinking, he transformed into a monster with allegedly poor memory. With that bloodshot, bugged out look in his eyes, he looked the part, too. He was always scary when he was like this, and he had been like this for the majority of the last six months of their relationship.

“Hi, Gemma,” he slurred. “I came to see your new boyfriend’s band.” He spat each word, infusing them with his personal brand of venom.

“Uh…that’s cool,” she answered uncomfortably, not liking where this was going. “I need to get back.” Noticing he reeked of alcohol already, she no longer felt sorry for spilling her beer on him. She wondered how long he’d been wearing those clothes, and if he had driven himself here. Maybe Kaleb had come with him, although he was probably just as drunk if he had.

She started to go around him, but Jon snatched her tightly by the wrist, causing her to gasp and sending the remaining beer to the ground. “I lied,” he said with a false sweetness, trying to give her his best puppy dog eyes and looking even more repulsive in the process. “I came to see you.”

“Jon, let me go,” she asserted, forcing herself to look him in the eyes in a futile attempt to find some semblance of humanity in him to appeal to. Instead, it seemed to make him angrier.

“Why should I? You were mine. I introduced you to him, you fucking slut,” he growled.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, unable to mask her genuine confusion. “Wait, do you mean that Halloween party? We barely said two words to each other, Jon!”

“Don’t insult me! I saw how he looked at you. And how you looked at him. Flaunting yourself around, humiliating me.”

A wave of panic began to rise in Gemma. She had only seen him this spitting mad once before, and it was the same night his usual threat of violence had escalated into an actual physical assault. No way she’d catch the eye of security over the crowd, and she wasn’t confident the guys could see her, either. “Jon, please, you’re hurting me,” she pleaded, attempting to break free from his vise. Even with all her weight behind it, it was an exercise in futility. Jon may have been skinny, but he effortlessly overpowered her.

Animalistic rage flashed through his face, and he yanked Gemma against him. “I’m hurting you?” He actually spit when he said it.

“GET OFF ME!” she screamed, struggling against him.

“Stop, stop….” came a quiet but familiar voice, followed by the abrupt discontinuation of music. Louder, “Hey man, you want to tell me who the hell you think you are putting your hands on her?” Kellin. There was a murmur in the crowd as she felt many eyes shift to her at once. _Fucking hell_ , she thought, _this is so embarrassing_.

“Mind your own business!” Jon growled back, his fingernails pinching Gemma’s flesh.

“She is my business, and if you don’t take your hands off of her in the next three seconds, you’ll be answering to me and my friend Justin and probably a bunch of these teenage girls. But hey, you can’t really fuck up your reputation any more than you already have, can you?” Gemma really wished Kellin wouldn’t rile him up more, but she was relieved to see Justin was already handing off his bass.

“You don’t know anything about me!” he spit back, still not relinquishing his hold on Gemma.

“Oh, I know everything I need to know what kind of man you are. Want to me let everyone else know, too?” There was an unfamiliar quality to Kellin’s voice as he motioned to the crowd. No longer the self-assured heckler, he sounded resentful. Gemma looked back to him, but he was gone.

Jon began yanking on Gemma in an attempt to drag her with him, his breath loud and heavy. She was resisting with the entirety of her weight when he suddenly let go, causing her to tumble backward into the dirt.

Only vaguely aware of the commotion around her, the norepinephrine overwhelmed her and she broke into a sob. Someone hooked their arms under her from behind and gently lifted her back to her feet. Immediately, she buried her face against Kellin’s chest. He hugged her tightly, stroking her hair and softly repeating, “You’re safe.”

Kellin took stock of the mess in front of him. Jon was bent over, his hands on his knees, the stream from his nose pooling strangely against the hydrophobic dirt. Justin was pacing, trying to shake the sting from his hand. A couple of security guys had appeared from somewhere and were talking quietly before one approached.

“What does she want us to do with him?” he asked, gesturing at Gemma.

“Just throw him out, man. He’s a predator,” Kellin answered.

“Kellin, please don’t….” Gemma started, looking up at him. She was interrupted by Jon yelling “Fuck you!”, presumably aimed toward Kellin.

“I won’t, baby,” he responded softly, meeting her gaze and planting a kiss on her forehead before firing back, “Are you even in a band, dude? I heard you got booted from another one, what’s that make? Four?”

Jon spit, with an uncanny resemblance to a bull making ready to charge. Kellin’s insistence on stoking the fire made little sense to Gemma. Fortunately, Jon’s escorts were on either side of him before he could turn the impulse into action. “Time to go, man,” one said as they turned him around to leave.

“Fuck you!” he screamed, “Don’t touch me!”

“Oh, you don’t like being touched? That’s fucking ironic, isn’t it?” Kellin shouted back, apparently unable to resist indulging his sassy streak when the opportunity presented itself.

“Kellin….” Gemma pleaded.

“Enjoy my sloppy seconds, bitch! She’ll always be a fucking whore! Watch her fuck your friends next!” Jon called back over his shoulder, looking absolutely insane. 

“You are so fucking pathetic, dude. And for the record, we were never friends,” Kellin returned. His final farewell, “Good luck with your sobriety!” was delivered with maximum sarcasm. “Asshole,” he muttered under his breath as Jon finally left earshot, still yelling incoherently.

Pulling back slightly to look at her, he asked, “Gemma, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“This is so humiliating, I ruined your fucking set. Oh my god, can you imagine what they’re going to say?” she burbled back, barely comprehensible.

“Woah, woah,” he replied softly, gently forcing her to make eye contact. “Slow down. You didn’t ruin anything. Come with me.” He signaled to Justin, who nodded and started back to the stage.

“No, Kellin, you have to finish the set, please. I don’t want to read about this on Twitter, I can’t, okay? Please,” she begged, fresh tears pooling in her eyes.

“Stop. It was our last song, anyway. Justin’s going to take care of it, you don’t need to worry about it, alright?” The look he gave her was one of exquisite tenderness. All she could do was nod, her diaphragm finally starting to slow. He wiped a thumb across her cheek, more of a symbolic gesture since the only effect was a redistribution of saltwater. “Come on,” he repeated, pulling her into a one armed hug as he started off.

Back at the bus, he’d run a t-shirt under cold water for her face before sitting next to her on the couch. Without hesitating, she scooched into his open arms, resting her head against his chest. It was then that he noticed the finger-shaped violets blooming on her arm, adorned with angry half-moons. “Gemma….”

“I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt,” she intercepted.

“I hope Justin broke his nose,” he started bitterly.

“Kellin, don’t.”

“He deserves it, after everything he’s done to you. More, really….” he trailed off.

Gemma pulled away, facing him. “I don’t like when you’re like this, Kellin. Stop letting him get to you.”

Sighing, he buried his hand in Gemma’s hair to clutch her tightly against his chest. “You’re right. I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry if I made things worse for you.”

“I just wish it never escalated to that. The whole thing was fucking humiliating,” she muttered, wanting to disappear.

“You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about, you know that right?” he asked, tilting her face toward his. “None of that was your fault. I don’t just mean today.”

Gemma responded by kissing him forcefully, climbing over his lap to straddle him. Momentarily, she was attempting to undo his belt and pants. Grasping her unbruised wrist, he pulled her hand away slowly. “Gemma, stop,” he said, the apparent pity in his voice only agitating her.

“I want to, please,” she begged, trying to slide her other hand into his waistband.

“No, you don’t,” he countered sympathetically, interlacing the fingers of his free hand with hers to draw her injured arm away. “You just don’t want to deal with this. It’s okay, but I’m not going to have sex with you like this. I’m not a distraction, I fucking care about you.” He successfully dissolved her pouting resistance by bringing her hand to his lips for a kiss, his viridescent eyes never leaving hers. “Tell me how you really feel.”

“I feel like you’re the only one who would say that, that it wasn’t my fault. I’m the one that initiated it, I’m the one who asked him to touch me again, knowing all I knew about him. I practically threw myself at him,” she answered, becoming increasingly emotional with every word and triggering a return of wetness to her eyes.

“So what? He’d been manipulating you for months, you shouldn’t be holding yourself to such a high standard of decision making. Besides, even in the best frame of mind, asking someone for sex doesn’t give them carte blanche to do whatever they want, to disregard your boundaries, to hurt you….” After stifling back a choke, he cut himself off to avoid making his own torment the focus.

Too late. “I wish I never told you,” she flared, trying to pull away. “I don’t want to be the object of your pity.”

“Gemma, stop,” he returned, unrelenting against her struggle. “Really, stop. Stop. Look at me,” he pleaded, finally convincing her. “I don’t pity you.”

“You promise?” she asked, giving him the most vulnerable look he’d ever seen her make.

“I fucking promise,” he answered unwaveringly, punctuating the statement with another kiss. “You have to stop blaming yourself. There’s no ambiguity for you to analyze, in any of it. He’s a sick person and there’s no excuse for the way he treated you. It was a choice he made for himself, not something you caused. Okay?” She nodded, dropping her gaze. He decided to call it a win for now, relaxing his hold. “Come here,” he said softly as he wrapped his arms around her, even though she had already collapsed against him when he allowed her to slip from his grasp. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

Just then, a knock came at the door. Kellin glanced at Gemma for confirmation. She nodded back, pulling herself off his lap to sit next to him and trying to dry her eyes. “It’s open!” Kellin called through the door, leaving one arm draped around her.

Justin poked his head through the door with a great deal of exaggeration, prompting Gemma to erupt with a laugh. “Sorry, I was suspicious of how quickly you answered. Wanted to be sure the coast was clear,” he joked as he came in, grinning in his characteristic fashion. “That was fun, right? I don’t get very many opportunities to do that anymore.”

“Glad you enjoyed it, dude. Not sure you speak for all of us, though. How pissed is everyone?” Kellin replied, sounding slightly annoyed.

“Thanks for your help, Justin,” Gemma interjected, trying to redirect the energy. “Seriously. That was awful.”

“It’s nothing, really,” he answered, more seriously. “Are you okay, though? Your arm looks gnarly and you bit it pretty hard.”

“I’m great, thrilled really, that everyone saw that,” she responded, sarcastically feigning enthusiasm. Gesturing toward her arm with a smile, she added, “It looks worse than it feels.”

He didn’t seem convinced, but he accepted her answer. “Good, we were all worried but we didn’t think we should crowd you.”

“Appreciate that, dude,” Kellin chimed in. “How did things go out there, though?”

“All good, dude,” he explained, lighting back up. “Nobody seemed upset, honestly, they just kept asking about you guys. We hung around for hugs and shit, the boys are wrapping up now. I just came to check on you two, see if you felt up to grabbing a bite with us.”

“I welcome the distraction!” Gemma groaned melodramatically, resting her hand on Kellin’s thigh. “What about you, babe?”

“I’d feel a lot better if we had the medic look over you first, just to be safe,” he suggested, overplaying his concern to preemptively shut down any potential for argument. “Then I’m down for whatever.”

“Sick,” Justin cut in. “I’ll let the boys know, we can link up in the usual spot. Later.”

Sighing as he closed the door, Gemma turned back to Kellin. “You mind giving me a few minutes to clean up before we leave? I can’t imagine what a mess I must look.”

“You look fine as hell, but if you insist,” he teased, provoking an eye roll from Gemma. “I’m being serious,” he pouted. “Help yourself to whatever, though.”

“Thanks, brat,” she retorted, kissing him on the cheek before getting up. A few moments later, he heard the shower as she called from the bathroom, “Kellin? Can you come here for a second?”

“What’s up—” he began, but he was cut off by Gemma’s lips when he reached the door as she pulled him into the cramped space. “Gemma, we talked about this….” he reminded her, seeming somewhat dejected about breaking the kiss.

“This isn’t a distraction, I swear. I just want you, Kellin. Please.” She was giving him that irresistible look of hers, somehow made cuter by her wet lashes, puffy lips, and tear-scrubbed face. He noticed that she had stripped out of her clothes, though her hair was still, just barely, contained in the same bun from earlier.

He pulled her back, nuzzling into her neck and whispering, “You promise, huh?” He locked eyes with her while he waited for her confirmation.

“I promise.” Sliding her hand down and over his waistband, she purred, “Let me take care of you?”

Prior to this moment, he hadn’t allowed his desire for Gemma overwhelm him, but that irrevocably unleashed the full force of his urgency. He signaled his affirmation with an aggressive kiss, not allowing her to break even to work on his pants. After managing them through a combined effort, Gemma eagerly started working his shaft with an impossibly soft hand. Kellin’s right hand formed a ferocious grip on her pert ass, the left remaining buried in her hair. Gemma took advantage of a prolonged moan to break away from his lips, sinking to her knees without letting go of him or breaking eye contact. As much as it pained him, he complied by releasing her ass with a farewell slap.

Looking up at him with her endless aventurine eyes, she swept her tongue from the base to the tip in one continuous, torturously drawn out moment before taking him into her mouth. “Fuuuuck,” he moaned, his hands latching into her hair as if it would steady him. She felt unreal, like some kind of witchcraft he’d invoked that the universe would come to collect on later. Without knowing the price, he decided it was worth it. “Don’t stop,” he pleaded, which earned him her middle finger and a wicked look in response. A chuckle challenged his moan, causing him to choke a little as the two competed for his airways. “You’re so fucking hot when you’re pissed at me,” he confessed, as she began working him more assertively.

“Fuck, that’s it, baby, you’re gonna make me come,” he barely managed before Gemma felt him release his warmth down her throat. He shivered violently as she licked him clean. She slid off him, her eyes still turned up to him in a look of pure devotion, without bringing her lips back together completely. Meeting her gaze, he placed his hand against the side of her face and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip, coating it in their collective juices before letting her draw it into her mouth. Seeing her covered in the aftermath of their tryst drove him wild. “I think I’ve changed my mind about having you clean up after all.”


End file.
